


Nothing Left but to Fall

by SpeakerForTheDead



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Breaking News: I don't know how to tag, Dark Harry, Dark Harry Potter, Dark Magic, F/M, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Snape is a dick, You can fight me on that, but he means well, character study maybe?, i wrote this in a frenzy at work cause i didn't want to forget it, so like apologies if its a lil disjointed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-03 07:04:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17279354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpeakerForTheDead/pseuds/SpeakerForTheDead
Summary: A bitter and angry Harry turns to questionable magic in the aftermath of the deaths he experiences.





	1. Stars, hide your fires

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys so I wrote this during a quick break after the lunch rush at work because I didn't trust my brain to remember it after I got off. so apologies if it reads as rushed or disjointed I will try to go back and fix any errors I find.
> 
> Also the timeline is somewhat jumbled in this. Gringotts break in happens before the visit to godrics hallow as well as some other things

Cedric dies first.  
Thrown aside like a bit of parchment too short to write on.  
A green flash of light and the words “Kill the spare.” echoing in his ears.  
After that Harry resolved to learn and train as much and as hard as he could to defeat Voldemort.

Sirius dies second.  
Falling through the Veil with a smile on his face and his laughter still echoing through the chamber.  
The rage Harry felt at the death of the man he had hoped to call home, fueled the first dark curse he ever cast. But it was not the last.  
“You’ve got to mean it” Bellatrix calls in her mocking voice. And he does mean it though. It just takes more than hatred to fuel a Crucio. It takes power and control. Both of which he vows to improve. So the next time he sees her his curse won’t fail again.

Dumbledore dies third.  
The man with the best of intentions and the harmful manipulations falls from the astronomy tower. The pain that was moments before carved into his face from Voldemort’s foul potion is absent. He seems peaceful in the aftermath of the Avada Kedavra. The man who even though he had wronged Harry, both through the Dursley’s and his manipulation and keeping him in the dark, he still cared for like a grandfather.  
  
Draco died next.  
The third dark curse he ever casts finishes what he started in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom weeks before. The Sectumsempra rips Malfoy neck to waist open in deep slashes. His breath coming short and the blood flowing like water. There’s no time for Snape to save him now as the Death Eaters flee from Hogwarts.  
Draco dies with the knowledge he failed his lord and the shame of defeat by his schoolyard nemesis.

Harry studies the darkest books he could find in Knockturn Alley when he returns home to the Dursleys. No. Not home. It has never been home with how he has suffered there. He tells himself it’s so he can find everything possible about Horcruxes and spells he might need to counter. He chooses not to think on how he’s memorizing the incantations and wand movements as he reads

Mad-Eye dies in the skies above Little Whinging. The coward Mundungus attracts the attention of the Dark Lord to the master auror. Harry didn’t see it happen but he’s sure Moody wouldn’t have gone without a fight. It’s the first real taste of death in battle in what is sure to be a bloody war.

Bill and Fleur's wedding comes and everyone is happy. Happy for a little bit of distraction in hope in these dark times.

Then the Death Eaters attack.

Harry grabs Hermione’s hand and they fight their way over to Ron. He is hoping she doesn’t notice the increasingly dark curses he throws at the black robes and silver masks.

Ron and Ginny are fighting back to back, wands raised and red hair flying fiercely. They are surrounded by Death Eaters, two bits of color in a sea of black and silver. Harry and Hermione watch helplessly as Ron and Ginny are struck down by killing curses.  
Harry apparated them both away to the forest where the Quidditch cup was played, and they break down holding each other. Sobbing over lost friends and lost loves.

Hermione asks him about the spells he used at the battle of the Burrow. Harry tells her about the entrail expelling curse and the bone shatterer. The withering curse and the skinning hex. He defends his actions telling her that, “Stunners don’t work in a war when their enemies can be ennervated and thrown right back into the fray. Sometimes you have to put them down hard and fight fire with fire.” She looks disapproving and warns him that dark magic is addictive and enticing before she asks him to teach her the spells. Harry tries not to think how Ron would be vehemently against the use of dark magic.

  
So many others die during their quest for Horcruxes. The casualties listed on the wizard radio are long every day. Sometimes they hear names they know and mourn silently.  
They come across a gang of snatchers that Harry obliterates quickly with an overpowered dark spell that summons internal organs.  
He sits there in the carnage wondering how he had enough power to affect multiple people on a spell meant for one.  
Harry and Hermione grow closer. They talk every once and awhile about Ron and Ginny, how they felt about their long gone friends. They share a bed when Harry’s nightmares become too much to handle.

  
They infiltrate the Ministry and Umbridge dies next. A simple piercing hex to her heart proves that Harry doesn't need dark spells to kill, and the words “I must not tell lies” carved into her hand brings him a small piece of revenge.  
They capture Snape as he tries to lead them with his doe Patronus in the Forest of Dean. They interrogate him with Hermione’s brewed veritasium and learn that Dumbledore knew that Harry was a Horcrux and bound his core to stop it from gaining power. Harry realized that the bindings must be broken somehow, explaining his influx of power. The knowledge of this betrayal, the withholding of important information stokes the fires of Harry’s rage higher.  
Snape dies on his own curse. The sectumsepra reflected back off the shield Harry threw up when Snape attacked Hermione. They left him there for the wolves and crows.

Harry uses the second Unforgivable Curse as they make their way into the wizarding bank. The imperio sings from his wand, the feeling of control is intoxicating, it's inviting nature is showing warning signs but he ignores them. He swears on the graves of his parents that he won't use the third Unforgivable, the curse that killed them, that gave him that scar.

Countless goblins die when they rob Gringotts. A blackness pulses in the back of his mind, a willingness to be more brutal and to curse more quickly. He ignores Hermione's slightly disapproving gaze and runs past warnings about the corruption of dark magic in favor of the power that flows from his fingertips.  
Curses he didn’t like to use came effortlessly to his fingertips as he tore through the crowd of warriors he could have stunned and subdued. “You don't need to kill them,” a voice in his head whispers. He ignores it and throws the next dark curse at a goblin in his path. He’s long past the Light now.


	2. Dark Necessities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The war makes it's way to its climax, The Battle Of Hogwarts.

Harry and Hermione are drunk with the exhilaration of escaping from Gringotts on the back of a dragon when they kiss the first time. The comfort and safety they took in each other at the beginning of this cursed quest morphed into love and affection.  And just a tiny tiny seed of guilt when they think of Ron and Ginny.

They visit Godric's Hollow and Harry manages to hit the snake after he’s bitten with the darkest spell he could find in the Black family library. A curse listed only by its incantation _anima fugatrix_ and the description “for enemies, a fate worse than Death” his rudimentary knowledge of Latin, picked up from years of incanting spells, told him it was called the soul banisher.

As the snake and Harry were writhing in agony Hermione managed to nail it with a bone exploding curse before they fled.

The snake and the Horcrux inside were the ones to die then.

But it did not come without cost. The magical coma Harry went into in the aftermath of the soul banisher lasted three days. Hermione was distraught and frantically searched for reasons why and found nothing in any of her books or notes. When Harry woke up he could feel the changes the dark magic had wrought upon him and his core. Instead of the multicolored splendor, his magic used to feel like it now had wide streaks of red and black that pulsed malignantly.

 

Pettigrew died next.

The Dark Lord's name still held the taboo on it and a slip of the tongue it led the snatchers right to their location. They were dragged to Malfoy Manor and Hermione was tortured while Harry was locked in the dungeon with nothing to hear but her screams.

The second Peter Pettigrew opened the door to drag Harry upstairs all the rage and anger he felt surged to the surface. Harry threw his hand out and pure unadulterated magic fueled by anger flowed through his hand. There was no incantation, there was no wand for focus, there was only power and hate. Hate for the man who betrayed his parents hate for the man who put his dogfather in Azkaban. Harry watched in grim satisfaction as his flesh melted off his bones just like a scene in some movie that Dudley was watching that he had caught through the window during his chores called India Jones or something.

 

Bellatrix died soon after.

Harry stormed his way upstairs to where she was torturing Hermione. With His aura visible as a hazy red shine around him and his glowing green eyes he looked like an angel of vengeance to Hermione, or perhaps not an angel but something more sinister, as he raised the wand he had taken from Wormtail and spoke the fateful word that had started him on his journey into darkness. _“Crucio”_

His tone could almost be mistaken as apathetic when he said the curse, but the screams coming from Bellatrix proved that he was anything but. The waves of power rolling off Harry were shaking the building so hard the ceiling was slowly crumbling apart. They fled the collapsing manor, leaving Bellatrix behind in a state similar to the Longbottoms. As they stood by the gates and watched the roof fall onto her Harry told Hermione that no one could have survived that. “Good.” She replied with grim satisfaction, and Harry couldn’t help but think that past Harry and Hermione would be horrified with what they’d become.

 

As they recuperated in the wizarding tent that had become their haven, Hermione overheard Harry mutter, “I am terrified by this dark thing that sleeps in me; All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity.”

“I didn't know you've read Sylvia Plath,” Hermione said inquisitively.“Mrs. Figg used to have books on poetry on her coffee table I could read when she babysat me.” Not that was a basis for a literature education, he thought. Hermione told him that although she could argue his reasons for learning and using dark magic she didn’t like the changes it was making in him. He didn’t say anything because he didn’t like the changes either. she also insisted that his "saving people thing" and want to do good proves that even though he might use morally questionable methods he is still a good person. Harry remembers the exhilaration he felt when slaughtering the goblins and isn't sure he agrees, but he doesn't say anything.

 

The Cup and Locket die next.

Hermione realized that the soul banisher could be used to destroy the Horcruxes housed in Slytherin's locket and Hufflepuff's cup. Harry insisted that he performs the curse because he is could still feel how casting it still affected him and wanted to spare her from that fate. He does what he’s always tried to do for those he loves. Protect them. the soul portions in the artifacts of the founders die almost anticlimactically. the effect the curse has on Harry is visible, however. He is paler and seems to be wreathed in shadows if seen from the corner of one's eye. Harry and Hermione both say nothing of these changes.

 

Harry has one advantage no one else has when fighting Tom Riddle, he’s seen inside his head. Knows it like he knows those pale white hands he’s seen in visions of Voldemort’s atrocities. He knows how he thinks. He knows that both he and Tom share something, that Hogwarts is their home, and knows somewhere deep in his gut that the Dark Lord must have hidden his last Horcrux at Hogwarts. So they make their way to Hogsmeade.

 

They arrive in the picturesque town and set off the Caterwauling charm. They both are filled with dread as they begin to feel the effects of dementors. Harry manages to conjure up a Patronus and is glad that he still has the happy memories to be able to. But Aberforth had fled the country rather than fight what he considered a losing war, so there was no one to take the blame for it. They were quickly besieged by Death Eaters. With more coming in every minute. Harry and Hermione fought side by side, weaving in and out of alleyways and taking down Death Eaters left and right. They had fought to the courtyard in front of the Three Broomsticks, tired of the fight and wearing down when Harry felt something slam into his back and send him sprawling. He turned around in time to see Hermione smiling at him sadly, and to see her mouth, “ I love you,” at him as the sickly green of a killing curse struck her in the side.

And Hermione died then.

 

Everything seemed to stop at that moment. Harry was in shock at what had happened, she had taken the Avada Kedavra meant for him. The Death Eaters watched warily as Harry stood up. A pulsing red aura, a visible manifestation of his magic and rage, forming around him. Through the pounding in his ears and the red haze in his vision, Harry hissed one word, the incantation to one of the most destructive pieces of magic he knew. “ _Fiendfyre,”_ he hissed, sounding scarily familiar to the Dark Lord for the Death Eaters that could hear him. The tried to run from the chimeras, dragons, and basilisks formed by the cursed fire. But the raging flames burned them and Hogsmeade alive.

 

When the flames sputtered out as quickly as they had formed. A figure was seen kneeling amidst the carnage, untouched by the flames and sobbing.  He had lost another one of his loves, and he didn’t know how much more he could take. Harry stood up, shook off his anguish, and stumbled his way towards the Hogwarts gates. He had another Horcrux to kill.

 

He snuck into the school under his invisibility cloak. Dodging the carrows and some of the meaner Slytherins he made his way to the room of requirements. Everyone hiding there cheered when he walked in and Seamus immediately got on the wizarding wireless and began calling in the remains of the Order of The Phoenix and D.A.

When Harry asked about Ravenclaw’s artifacts and he and Luna ran into the Carrows and McGonagall in the Ravenclaw common room he dropped the Death Eater twins with a pair of cutting curses. McGonagall didn’t comment, just pursed her lips and called for the evacuation of the younger children. Instead of confining all of the Slytherins to the dungeons Harry insisted that they be able to fight for their home because not everyone could be a Death Eater in that house. He warned them, however, with flashing green eyes and a threatening look, that any who turned on the defenders would be put down with great prejudice.

 

The diadem dies next.

As he made his way through the Room of Hidden Things towards the bust of the wizard he had hidden the Half-Blood Prince’s book what felt like so long ago, he steeled himself to the reality that he would have to die for Voldemort to be killed. But he would take as many Death Eaters as he could with him.

He performed the Animus Fugatrix on the diadem, and as he left the room those who had seen a dementor would find the air around him eerily similar, Dark and cold like the absence of souls.

 

He found Neville and made the other child of prophecy swear to kill Voldemort if anything happened to him. He saw the formerly shy boy's shoulders straighten and a look of determination come upon his face. He knew that Neville could do it. He had faith in his remaining friends.

 

The battle raged and so many more died.

Harry himself killed Dolohov after the Death Eater had struck down Remus and Tonks. He hit  Pius Thickness and Mulciber with entrail expelling curses as they ended the Weasley line.

He ended Crabbe and Goyle as they tried to curse the defenders of Hogwarts in the back, leaving nothing but smears on the pavement in his wake.  He fought in a haze of dark curses and hexes till he found himself standing in a courtyard, ankle deep in blood and body parts with no one else to turn his wand on.

 

He walked into the Great Hall and saw the gathered bodies of those he loved. Remus, Tonks, Flitwick, Lavender, the Patil twins.  Molly, Arthur, Gred, and Forge lay dead with only Percy left mourning them, sobbing over dead family and unrepaired bonds. Bill and Fleur died slaying Fenrir Greyback, their bodies marred with the scars only a werewolf could make, hands clasped tightly together in a Deathly embrace. All these people died fighting to keep their world, their home from falling to tyranny and darkness, a darkness Harry felt himself spiraling further and further into with no control. They were fighting to protect the ones they loved and for a better tomorrow. There was almost no one left for tomorrow at this point.

 

Voldemort issued his ultimatum and Harry snuck his way to the Forbidden Forest. As he was going he made eye contact with Neville and Luna, their grim nods of acknowledgment showed that even those freest of spirit knew that sacrifices were needed in a war. He whispers at the snitch Dumbledore willed him. “I am about to die,” and it opens at the close. The resurrection stone falls out but he has no temptation to use it, he knows why he has to die and goes without reservation, scared of what would become of him if he lived and the destruction Voldemort would reap upon the world. He pockets the second Hallow and continues on his way.

 

The duel between Harry and Voldemort in the forest clearing rivals the one of Voldemort and Dumbledore at the ministry after Sirius’ Death. Dark magic flows back and forth like a raging river. There’s no priori incantantem effect to bind their wands this time so curses that are deflected careen behind the two combatants. Harry notices that some of his deflected curses are hitting the Death Eaters around Voldemort and starts slipping in area of effect spells into the devastating chains of spellfire he’s pouring at Tom and that Riddle is deflecting so easily. For all the power Harry possesses the Dark Lord has decades more experience with dark magic, he knows this is a fight he can’t win. But he is going to exploit the Dark Lords carelessness to its fullest with the spells hitting the surrounding Death Eaters. Eventually, after what feels like hours of the blinding flares of green, red, purple, yellow, and blue spells one finally connects with Harry and he drops to his knees. The fire whip that Voldemort has conjured wrapped around his chest goes out. “The boy who lived, come to die,” the Dark Lord says mockingly as he casts a spell the same color as the vibrant green eyes staring at him hatefully. And all of a sudden Harry sees nothing but white.

 

After his meeting with Dumbledore at the Kings Cross afterlife station, Harry wakes up in Hagrid’s arms. Neville defies the Dark Lord and is brutally beheaded with a dark cutting curse as he tries to stab Voldemort with the sword of Gryffindor. During the confusion, Harry slips out of Hagrid's grasp and casts the organ summoner on the surrounding Death Eaters in retaliation for Neville’s death. In his rage at the loss of nearly all of his followers, Voldemort begins throwing exploding curses at the rapidly dwindling defenders of Hogwarts before Harry steps in and engages him in a duel. What can only be described as a clashing of titans ends abruptly when Harry slips the same dark cutter used to kill Neville through the Dark Lord's defenses, severing his wand hand. He quickly summoned the wand that had passed its ownership from Grindelwald to Dumbledore to Riddle and finally ends it's journey, coming to rest in Harry’s hand.

 

With a malicious smile on his face, Harry tells the man who was once Tom Riddle, “This is for all those deaths that you’ve caused, for all the pain and torture and grief. This is for my parents and my friends. This is to avenge all those harmed by you.” “ _animus fugatrix.”_ As those who were left watched, they heard tortured screams as the Dark Lord’s soul was slowly ripped from his body. The courtyard began shaking itself apart from the magical energy being expended. Harry stood in the midst of the chaos, robes flaring around him and hair flying in the wind. His glowing green eyes were shockingly visible through the shadows that seemed to be enveloping him. The bystanders could feel all the warmth and life being leached from the surroundings as the two powerful magical cores raged against each other, one resisting the spell and one urging it to completion. With one last roar of frustration, Harry _pushed_ , and the spell came to its end. A shockwave of magic and destruction rushed out from where he stood, flattening everything around him.

When the dust and rubble settled, the Man-Who-Conquered stood as a solitary figure in the courtyard. No one else had survived the spell and resulting explosion. He was _alone._

 

Everyone was dead now.

Harry searched the grounds for anyone left alive. He came upon Hagrid, his first friend, bleeding from enough wounds to kill a normal man, just as he breathed his last. He saw the bodies of McGonagall and Sprout where they had tried to protect the remaining students with their lives. He saw the remains of Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass where they fell defending their school, proving that Slytherins were not all bad. He saw Luna lying peacefully next to Neville's body, her butterbeer cork necklace and radish earrings immaculate amongst the carnage, a look of peace upon her face, she could have been sleeping. He saw the house elves and Firenze crushed by the fallen roof of the Great hall. He saw so much death and destruction that he and Voldemort had caused. Harry made his way through the beloved halls of his tarnished school to the astronomy tower, to watch the sun set on that bloody day.

 

The Master of Death stood on top of the astronomy tower, gazing out upon the carnage that used to be magical Britain, strewn across the grounds of his first true home, Hogwarts. The Elder Wand was in his pocket, the Cloak of Invisibility around his shoulders, and the Resurrection Stone in his hand. Turning it over absentmindedly he was surprised when Hermione’s ghostly figure appeared next to him. “It’s okay,” she tells him. “You did what you had to, none of us blame you.” Her message didn’t stop Harry from blaming himself, however. “We love you, Harry, I love you. Come to us when it's your time and we’ll welcome you with open arms,” the ghostly thing that is not quite Hermione says.

Harry could feel the dark energies racing inside himself, the temptation to continue building upon the rage and slaughter the Dark Arts had tempted him on. Ron was right so long ago, Dark magic really does corrupt. Harry was tired. Tired of the killing and the anger. Tired of the battles and the war, as exhilarating as they could be. But most of all he was tired of losing people, even though he had no one left to lose. He refused to go on the killing spree he could feel the darkness tempting him on. He was done.

 

The Master of Death, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Man-Who-Conquered, the youngest seeker in a century, the Triwizard champion, and the person he will always be at his core, just plain old Harry Potter; stood up and walked to the edge of the tallest tower of Hogwarts, and stepped out into the night. It felt like his favorite pastime, flying, and as he greeted Death as an old friend, they departed this life as equals

 

And so Death claimed the first and last Master of Death, the final descendent of the third brother, for his own.

And Harry died last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> both Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Ariel (1965) by Slyvia Plath would have been out before the time of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (1998) is set in. 
> 
> I hope Y'all enjoyed this! Let me know if you find any errors in it and leave a review if you feel like it!


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